Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-03-11
A RAGING TORRENT.
The Texas Express on the ST. Louis,
Lon Mountain and Southern Goes
Through a TrestIe.
Trainmen Badly Injured and Many Pas
sengers Narrowly Escape Drowning.
The Mail all Lost.

me VI All all Lost.
ST. LOUIS, Mo, March A railroad
accident on the Iron Mountain Railway
nesr De Soto, Mo, last night, while MOI
being ct sill unusual in regard to fata
casualties, proves TO have been quite re
msrksble IN several circumstances which
attended it. It occurred at Victoria
thirtv-nine miles south Of here, little
after 10 O'Clock, and was occasioned
by the giving Way under q
train of the trestle whicS crosses Joachim
creek at that point. Thc train was the
Texas express, and consisted Of baggage,
express and mail cars, smoker, two
passenger coaches and four sleepers, car.
ryIng about $50 pssserg5rs. A heavy
rain had fallen all day, and the creek was
much swollen. At Hemitite, the first
station this side CT the trestle, the en-
gineer received orders 10 run
cautiously. IS the rain bad been
heavy and the creek was out OF is
banks. Engineer Kelly says he ran slow
beyond that point and both he and his
fireman, William Hatch, watched the
track very carefully. rs he approached
the treStle Kelly observed that the track
Wss entirely straight and level, showing
nothing wrong, and re went on without
TIE slightest fear or hesitation, but
when MS engine reached about the
middle Of the trcstlework he
felt the whole structure sinking beneath
him. In an instant he opened the valve
operating the air brakes and brought the
train TO so quick stop that the front ED
OF Cne Of the { q s was crushed in by the
sudd shock. This saved The coaches,
but the baggage, mail, express and smok-
ing cars WerC into the raging torrent be-
low, carrying with them ell the men on
board. Engineer Kelly and Fireman
Hatch went down with the
engine and were submerged
IN the flood. Kelly, ia his struggles to
free himself, found one Of his feet was
Eeld fast, but ut the same instant and
lust as he realized he must drown, the
engine turned over, his foot was re-
leased and he came t1 the surface SeiZ-
inc passing log ne chung to it desper-
ateiy and was swept down the torrent
and lodged against tree $50
yards below. With scarcely strength
enough to move, he Clasped his legs and
arms around the limb Of 9 tree and be-
came unconscious, and was not restored
until two or three hours after he had been
taken from the tree, when he found him
self kindly cared for in 4 house in Vic
tOria. His face and hands are severely
cut, two of his toes cut from one Of MS
feet, and be is very badly bruised in Va
riOus parts of the body. He will recover.
Fireman Hatch was carried about 500
yards down the stream and lodged in q
mass Of brush or drift, and was rescued
soon after the food subsidized. He IS 8
good deal bruised but not seriously hurt.
The postal car was swept away some
distance, and as the water ran through
il from end TO end the mail was washed
out and is now scattered over miles
Of territory or imbedded in
the mud of the creek. It is
regarded as an almost total loss, the
whole Of it being completely soaked ana
the addresses Of the letters being Cbliter-
s.ed. Postal Clerks Mccullough, Shaet-
fer and Ryan were badly bruised and al
most drowned, and being stripped for
work they -st 8ll clothes, gold watches
sud about $3.50 IN m0uey, which were
carried away by the food.
The smoker. which is said to have con-
Jsined some twenty passengers, was
trcstIe and all of its occupants believed to
have been saved. They succeeded in get
ting outside Of the car and chung to its
top until they were rescued. There is
some doubt about the baggageman and
express mes enger being saved, but
late dispatch from the wreck
says that none of the tTainmen
were lost. Last night a special train was
500 b..- hot , nd 81
conveying physicians and medical sup
plies. This train returned this afternoon
and brought number of passengers and
lrainmen who did not care to wait at the
wreck until the trestle was repaired. -
the water subsidized suhiCientlya larss gang
was put 10 work and the new crossing
finished this afternoon, and trains are
now running regularly. The cause of
the unprecedented flood is believed to be
a cloud burst which took place late in the
evening, aud filled the creek which runs
between the ruggid hills for miles 50 full
that IL became a raging torrent, with q
current OF over twenty miles per hour.
and swept everything before it.
= full list Of casualties cannot be o.
tanned Tonight, but aside from Henry
Byron of jamestown, n. Y, who was
found drowned III the smoker, and
ByrGes, q brakeman, who had his foot
dislOcated, no one than those mentioned
were in any way seriously injured. Nearly
onehslf of those in the smoking car lost
most Of their clothing, it being torn from
their perSOuS either in getting out of
the car or by the rushing water through
which they were dragged ashore by
ropes.
] l. - =
B3yley did heroic work in saving pas
seugerS, he having swSm several times to
the smoker ana each time returned with
one Of the uDfOrtunates who were cling
ing to the roof of the car. Several o. .he
passengers IL the SIeepers also aided ma
terislly in the work, and Conductor
GunOn Of the train and all of the train
crew labOTed like TrOjans in Tescuing
those on the car.
The mail is said 10 have been the
largest ever sent over the road, and the
losses Will fall heavily on this city where
about three-quaTIeTS of the matter OrI-
ginated. Registered matter was als)
very heavy and valuable, consisting large
" of TemittsnCes from firms here to their
in Texas. There were
separate pouches for Palestine, Dallas,
TeXaI kama, Hot Springs and
Memphis, and one from New York for
Tex. There were also twenty
eight registered packages for smaller
stations. The paper mail is said to be
total loss. All Of the letter mail thst can
be found viii be brought here and every
effort will be made TO ascertain to who 1t
belongs. An express package without an
address or anything on it by which it can
be Identified containing So, 200 was found
10 day, and it is not unlikely others will
be discovered in the bed Of the creek or
in the woods.